The Bookworm – Terri Schlichenmeyer

“The Vixen Diaries” by Karrine Steffans

When you think of Hollywood and the stars and the movies, you probably think about all the fame and glamour and money.  Limos.  Red carpet.  Paparazzi.  Designer clothes, fancy parties.  Stuff like that. Or maybe the things that come to mind when you think about Hollywood are revolving-door marriages, scandals, and screaming matches outside exclusive clubs.
Author Karrine Steffans has seen all of the above and more, and in her new book “The Vixen Diaries” she talks about Hollywood performers, personas, and playas.

Since the debut of “The Confessions of a Video Vixen,” her first book published a couple years ago, Steffans has been busy. She and her son have settled down in a Hollywood manse that Steffans says is very big, but she wants a bigger one. She has a successful career, several Beemers, a nanny, and a life that allows her to party all night and sleep all day.

Although Steffans complains that long-time friends don’t stimulate her mind enough, her industry friends have been supportive over the years. Magic Johnson took care of her back when she and her son were homeless. Chris Rock has become a confidante. Mike Tyson loaned her money. On the other hand, Dennis Rodman, Steffans says, is “an absolute nut” and she didn’t enjoy the evening she spent talking with him.

Teddy Pendergrass asked her out and she was “immediately turned off.” Steffans says she had a “tumultuous affair” with Bobby Brown, but she kicked him out of her life awhile back. She was briefly in love with a famous boxer and had a steamy sneak-around relationship with a man who was “young, very young”.

The love of her life, though, is the man she calls “Daddy”—Bill Maher.  Steffans doesn’t elaborate about why they’re no longer a couple, but she says they’re closer than ever. She indicates that she will never love another man the way she loves Bill.

So what is the point of this book?
I was kind of wondering the same thing.

“The Vixen Diaries” is a contradiction, almost from the start. Author Karrine Steffans admits to having hysterical crying jags over finished relationships, yet she repeatedly muses about her inner strength. She professes to hate when people know her only as the girl who wrote Confessions, but she absolutely never misses a chance to remind readers that she’s a famous “New York Times best-selling author.”

Steffans claims to be humble, but at one point in this book, she says of herself, “Very few women in my demographic have the opportunity to explore their innermost thoughts… and turn them into a best-selling book.  Very few of us will ever have the chance to mold our culture. People in powerful positions want me around…”  That doesn’t seem like humility to me. And this didn’t seem like a very good read.

If you’re looking for big Hollywood names, you’ll find quite a few of them dropped in “The Vixen Diaries.” If you’re looking for oh-my moments, though, your average teenager’s diary is much more scandalous.